“All data stored with our providers is encrypted. China Telecom does not have access to the content."

But the move stands in opposition to rivals Google and Microsoft, which have chosen to avoid keeping servers for their Gmail and Hotmail services in China.

Their refusal to align with China’s policy of hosting digital services offered to their citizens has caused disruption to services in the past.

Microsoft has seen its cloud storage service disrupted in China since early June and Google's search engine was interrupted around the time of the 25th anniversary of pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square

"If [Apple] making out that the data is protected and secure that's a little disingenuous because if they want to operate a business here, that'd have to comply with demands from the authorities," Jeremy Goldkorn, director of Danwei.com, told Reuters.

"On the other hand if they don't store Chinese user data on a Chinese server they're basically risking a crackdown from the authorities."